Purple corn colors, a type of anthocyanin colors, are widely used, chiefly for coloring foodstuffs including beverages. Purple corn colors, however, have characteristic odor components and impurities derived from purple corn used as a raw material. Therefore, when purple corn colors are used in foodstuffs or like products, it is likely that odor and precipitates produced by the odor components and impurities will adversely affect the flavor and taste of such foodstuffs. Consequently, there has been demand for a color preparation comprising a purple corn color that has been significantly reduced or eliminated the odor components and impurities characteristic of purple corn. So far, and various purification processes have been proposed.
Nevertheless, no process is known to effectively remove the characteristic odor of purple corn colors, and thus conventional purple corn color preparations unavoidably have the peculiar odor derived from purple corn.
Another problem is that conventional purple corn color preparations exhibit an “odor regression” phenomenon, in which their odor gradually increases during long-term storage as a result of deterioration with time under the influence of heat, light, etc.
Further, purple corn color and preparations thereof need to be prepared so as not to be polluted with mycotoxins such as fumonisins, which may occur in purple corn used as a raw material, because they are widely used as food coloring agents.